Morenci Garden Club schedules contest 2012.05.02

Morenci Garden Club members are out to find the area’s best small-scale gardener by way of a container garden contest.

Organizer Becky Schermerhorn urges gardeners to begin thinking about interesting containers to use for the contest.

“Look around your house, apartment, garage or farm,” she said. “You can plant a flower garden in anything. Buckets, old shoes, chairs, dishpans, pots and pans, a wheelbarrow, old farm equipment—the sky is the limit.”

One of the two prizes offered is for the most unique container used.

Once a container is selected, Schermerhorn says then it’s time to start designing and choosing plants.

“Be sure to use different shapes, sizes, colors and textures,” she said. “You must have at least five plants in your container. So your choices are unlimited to how many varieties you may use. You could go wild at any garden center just looking, thinking, and choosing to create your container garden.”

After planting a container, take a photograph showing the beginning stages, then take three more photos as the plants grow. This will allow judges to see how the container has changed and improved in size and color over the summer.

Photographs and a $5 entry fee should be submitted to any Morenci Garden Club member or dropped off at City Hall by Sept. 5. First prize will be based on the best color and plant combinations. Special awards will be given for the most unique container and also for the container showing the most vigorous growth and healthy plants.

The winners will be announced in the State Line Observer.

Entry forms will be available May 12 at the Morenci Garden Club Geranium Sale at Morenci’s Farmers’ Market location on Main Street. Forms will also be available at the club’s Plant Exchange on June 2 at Wakefield Park.

The public is invited to join in.

“So let’s get our hands dirty and start planting to make this a huge success for the Morenci Garden Club,” Schermerhorn said.